"No one would have believed in the last years of the
nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by
intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men
busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and
studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise
the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With
infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little
affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible
that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to
the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to
dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable."

With the above words began the 1898 seminal classic of H.G.
Wells - the Father of all science-fiction alien invasion stories. With
these words adapted and narrated for the twenty-first century audience, the
2005 film version of "War of the Worlds" commences. (Read book at http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/36/36-h/36-h.htm) The
movie tells the terrifying eyewitness account of a man's (played by
Tom Cruise) encounter of extraterrestrial invaders and his
adventures in keeping his family safe.

Does Buddhism subscribe to
belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life-forms? Why not? The Buddha
Himself taught us about the vast reaches of the universe and its inhabitants,
including realms of existence unseen by the naked eye. Way before the
microscope was invented, He once held up a cup of water, remarking
that there were 84,000 (a number sometimes taken figuratively to mean
"innumerable") beings within!

Riding on towering "tripod"
war machines that emerge from the depths of the Earth, the aliens
apparently "run" (pun intended) on the same "tripartite" roots of evil
as humans - that of greed, hatred and ignorance (the three poisons). Just as the
evil tripods caused suffering for humankind, the "tripartite" of
evil is humankind's true bane. The aliens' purpose was obvious -
to search and destroy, to command and conquer - that's greed. We see them
mercilessly incinerating humans on sight - that's hatred. And their
fundamental ignorance was not knowing they were vulnerable to the unseen
bacteria of this Earth. Being unenlightened sentient beings after all, they
are only "human"! The secretly buried tripods are like
the hidden monstrosities of our three poisons. As the movie
tagline goes, "They're already here." Yes, the true monsters
are already here within us; not from outer space.

The alien
machines' laser-zapping of the relatively tiny scurrying humans on the
streets brings to mind a humbling thought... On the
cosmic scale of things, the rights to live for all beings should be equal
- these rights should not be relative to physical size or might.Just
as the insect-like aliens exterminated humans as if they were pests
infesting the Earth, humans seldom spare second thoughts for the "lesser"
insects and animals they kill - be it for food, sport or even fashion. Who are
we to see these aliens as savages, who also see our savagery to fellow
sentient beings?

Thus taught the Buddha, "All
beings tremble at violence. Life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the place of
another, one should neither kill nor cause others to kill." This brings us to the Buddha's version of the "golden rule"
- " 'As I am,
so are others; as others are, so am
I.'Having thus identified self and
others, harm no one nor have them harmed." We are humans who
lord over weaker and less intelligent animals, who forgot we are "animals"
too, though in the privileged position to protect for, and not
exploit the animal kingdom. With merciless aliens in the
picture, humans are greatly humbled, no longer "gods" of their
universe. In fact, even without the aliens, there are real "gods" beyond our
realm of existence, not to mention countless
immeasurably superior Buddhas! To realise
humility, we only need to zoom out of our tiny egos to the far reaches of this
universe - to realise that not only are we not the greatest, the universe does
not revolve around us either.

The director Stephen Spielberg commented that he tried to bring in
social issues such as terrorism into the film. Which brings to mind an
interesting thought... Do we, citizens of this
Earth, need an extraterrestrial terrorist-like attack from otherworldly
denizens to urge us to abandon our petty wars, to stand united against this
one common threat? Do we need global disasters to strike before we realise we
are one people? Must world peace come at such a high cost? Spielberg also
remarked that great tragedies can bring out the best and worst in humans. In the
film, while some calmly unite efforts for everyone's survival like Bodhisattvas,
some panic and go berserk, resorting to unscrupulous means for
personal survival. The real terror comes not from
terrorists, but from letting our own terror take
over.

The conclusion of the novel, (rephrased
as closing narration for the movie) reads, "These germs of disease have
taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things - taken toll of our
prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural
selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we
succumb without a struggle, and to many - those that cause putrefaction in dead
matter, for instance - our living frames are altogether immune... By the toll of
a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his
against all comers..." One man's air is another alien's poison! Just
as humans learnt a painful lesson of humility from the aliens, the aliens
learnt an equally painful lesson from "alien" bacteria! Massive collective
karmic retribution perhaps?

A frightening thought... Humankind's
ongoing tampering with nature through genetic modification and creation of
unnatural antibiotics and such might lead to the evolution of new
strains of viruses, which not only have the ability to infect and kill animals
and humans, which also have the capacity to mutate and lead
to pandemic diseases. Mad cow disease, the SARS and Bird-flu
viruses were probable results. "Alien" viruses are thus unwittingly
"bred" right under our noses on Earth, often out of greed for quick
profiteering, and out of delusion of the possible side effects. Will we share a similar fate to the alien invaders in
the movie? We can prevent this by supporting natural food and other everyday
products we use in life. For instance, to prevent the development and
proliferation of animal-related viral diseases, which might also affect humans,
go vegetarian! In the web of interdependence, saving
the animals can save us too.

What
is, as titled, the universal "war of the worlds", of all worlds? You
should know it by now! The real war that wages on is
the invisible, and thus much more terrifying battle - that within our minds
- against the three poisons. How can we win this war? Through
none other than diligent study and practice of the Dharma!

~ Shen Shi'an

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